Independent member of the European parliament Fidias Panayiotou was the only Cypriot dissenter on Tuesday as the parliament green-lit two pieces of legislation which aim to ease trade between the European Union and the United States.

Four of Cyprus’ six MEPs – Loukas Fourlas and Michalis Hadjipantela of Disy, Geadis Geadi of Elam, and Costas Mavrides of Diko – voted in favour of the two bills, while Akel’s Giorgos Georgiou was not present.

The Cypriots’ mood was largely shared by their fellow MEPs, with the first regulation, which eliminates tariffs on all US industrial goods entering the European single market and provides preferential market access for a range of seafood and agricultural goods, passing by 440 votes to 151.

Likewise, the second regulation, which extends the EU’s zeroing of tariffs on lobster from the US and extends that tariff-free access to processed lobster, passed by 444 votes to 152.

The first regulation also empowers the European Commission to suspend those tariff preferences at the end of this year if the US continues to apply a tariff rate higher than 15 per cent on EU steel and aluminium derivatives.

In line with this, the commission will issue a report on the matter to the parliament and to the Council of the EU by December 1.

The regulations are both based on a joint statement issued by the EU and the US last August following an agreement which was reached at a meeting of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and US President Donald Trump in Turnberry, in Scotland, a month prior.

Following the day’s votes, the parliament’s international trade committee (Inta) chairman Bernd Lange said that the regulation has “become part of the EU’s defensive toolbox”.

“It not only strengthens and stabilises EU-US trade relations, but it also gives the EU the ability to respond if the United States fails to uphold its side of the bargain. Thanks to parliament’s firm stance the final text now contains a far stronger safety net,” he said.

He added, “we will continue to closely watch the implementation of this agreement”, and as such said that “if the US side breaches either the letter or the spirit of the Turnberry agreement, parliament will insist that the commission make full and timely use of every instrument provided by this regulation”.